Golf Courses
I drove up to Manor Park (Kingston 8) today for the first time in months. While passing the Constant Spring Golf Course, I noticed how green the greens were, and how manicured the fairways, and saw quite a few persons playing. All this is to say, that in the midst of poverty and crime there is a beautiful oasis in a central part of the city suburbs. But then, the real question is why does this tribute to wealth exist right here in Kingston? I guess you can call it the suburbs, but a 1.3 mile golf course? What about building some housing?
The real answer is that the Golf Course is owned by the National Water Commission and is protected as a watershed area. As a result, there are few other uses for it, so a golf course is a good idea, especially for the existing home owners as it only serves to increase the value of properties adjoining the course - hence the highly valued Norbrook and Manor Park areas. My problem, however, is in a city starved of open green spaces and beautiful parks for walking or relaxing, or evening a picnic - why is there an amenity which only a few of us can afford to participate in... Please don't get me wrong, I am definitely not hating on golf, but I believe it is a highly inappropriate for public lands!
Most will argue that we Jamaicans don't really like parks and that the fees generated by the golf course takes care of keeping the place pretty and land values high. However, as the experience of large crowds at Emancipation Park shows, we are starving for open spaces to chill! Something we are very good at... Unfortunately, critics will point to Hope Zoo and Hope Gardens as failures of the public park system - and they would be justified in doing so - I can only imagined how spectacular they were at the heights of their popularity!
I say: turn the Golf Course into a pay park, open to all members of the public for a small fee. This solution would have to be closely examined from both a financial and political point of view. Who believes that uptown kingston would facilitate such a change?? And lose their playground?? If you've ever been down Spanish Town Road (the Payneland, Tivoli wing, not the Red Stripe, Toyota Jamaica side of 3 miles) then u've seen places in dire need of greenery. I think the easiest part of the revitalization of downtown is to destroy some of the derelict buildings and turn them into nice green spaces.
Ahh well, we can only dream...
posted by damanimichael @ 6:30 PM
1 Comments:
Golf course? Watershed? Don't golf courses need tons of fertilizer? Ergo, golf courses are bad for watershed areas? Who's the Commmission fooling?
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